the graphic design school blog.

As a design stu­dent myself I know how hard it is to break into the field, but I am proof that it can be done with a bit of hard work… In this art­icle I am going to share with you my tips on how and where to get freel­ance design jobs while you are still a graphic design student.

The Prob­lems

There are four main prob­lems that design stu­dents face:

They do not yet have the skills needed to be a pro­fes­sional designer as they are still (1) try­ing to fig­ure out the ins and outs of the soft­ware (2) and to top off this they still are yet to have a reput­able port­fo­lio (3) or (4) any know­ledge about deal­ing with cli­ents, budget­ing or time man­age­ment which more than likely means that you (5) have no repu­ta­tion and no one knows about you. Let’s have a look at these prob­lems and their solutions.

Prob­lem 1. You have no basic graphic design skills

This of course, is the reason you are study­ing to learn these skills. How­ever, do not be a static learner at Uni­ver­sity, you must pro­pel your­self for­ward to learn more and be the leader of the pack. You should be act­ive in graphic design for­ums, read design and freel­an­cing blogs, borrow/buy books, ask ques­tions and really get out there.

Go to your local design stu­dio and ask for work exper­i­ence — I did this and I worked on all their pro bono jobs, it was a great exper­i­ence and I learned more about cli­ents and time man­age­ment while I was doing it. These few things will help your basic design skills get up to scratch plus you will be ahead of the rest as not many people do this.

Recom­men­ded Reading

Graphic Design School by David Dab­ner
A book about what your design course is teach­ing. A good aid!

Non Designer’s Design Book by Robin Wil­li­ams
A great book for begin­ners at graphic design school, a must read.

Graphic Design as a Second Lan­guage by Bob Gill
This book is aimed mainly at stu­dents and teach­ers of design, and those that wish to improve their design solu­tions through a bet­ter design process

Non Designer’s Type Book by Robin Wil­li­ams
This book is full of the bare essen­tials of typo­graphy. It is very easy to read and a must read for any graphic design student.

How To Be A Rock­star Freel­an­cer eBook by Col­lis Ta’eed
This is a great book for freel­an­cers just start­ing out, it teaches you the bare ropes of how to be a suc­cess­ful freelancer.

How To Be A Graphic Designer Without Los­ing Your Soul by Adrian Shaugh­nessy
This book cov­ers the more advanced top­ics about being a graphic designer. Great for the more advanced students.

Recom­men­ded Blogs

Just Cre­at­ive Design
My own — var­ied tips & resources

The Graphic Design School Blog
Great tips, Tutori­als, Art­icles, and free stock art. The focus on European trends is ori­ginal and refresh­ing! All aimed at the Graphic design student.

Freel­ance Switch
Great tips on everything freelance

All Graphic Design
Very var­ied Graphic Design topics

A Cre­at­ive Curio
Great for print tips

Abduzeedo
Great inspir­a­tion and more

Smash­ing Magazine
Huge lists of resources

Recom­men­ded Forums

Estet­ica Design Forum

Graphic Design Forum

Prob­lem 2. You have no com­puter skills

You need com­puter skills to be a suc­cess­ful graphic designer and a great way to acquire these skills is by read­ing tutori­als, books and of course, prac­tice. I repeat: tutori­als, books and prac­tice. By read­ing tutori­als and books you gain more know­ledge of the soft­ware and get bet­ter as a graphic designer.

Try to get first hand exper­i­ence off other pro­fes­sional design­ers — a great way to do this is ask for work exper­i­ence at your local design stu­dio, they are usu­ally more than happy to help.

Another handy trick is to get free stock items off the web and decon­struct them to see how they were made… this opened a whole new world for me.

Last of all: prac­tice, prac­tice, prac­tice and hope­fully you won’t turn out like this guy

Other Recom­men­ded Tutorial Sites

After you’ve tackled all the tutori­als on this site, check out these other sites. Choose a begin­ners tutorial if that’s where your at, and revisit the Graphic Design School blog reg­u­larly as more Graphic Design tutori­als are added weekly.

PSDTuts

Vec­tor­Tuts

Illus­trator Tutori­als

Prob­lem 3. You do not have a reput­able portfolio

Every designer had to start some­where and every designer star­ted with noth­ing so you are not alone. Build­ing your port­fo­lio is prob­ably the most import­ant thing you do at Uni­ver­sity as this is how you will get a full time job once you leave.

Port­fo­lios are another topic in itself, how­ever you can build it up by mak­ing up your own fic­tional graphic design briefs, work­ing for cli­ents on the web, and by using your uni­ver­sity work.

Stu­dios do not mind if your port­fo­lio items are fic­tional as long as they are high qual­ity and you can jus­tify your design pro­cess & decisions made.

Port­fo­lios Resources

10 Tips On Cre­at­ing a Design Portfolio

For­ums

To build your port­fo­lio up you can get some small pay­ing jobs (between $15 to $300) on Digital Point Forums.

Con­tests

Although some­times frowned upon in the design industry, con­tests are another way to build up your port­fo­lio. I entered quite a few when I was start­ing out how­ever have since stopped after estab­lish­ing my self as a professional.

Job Board sites

If you are good enough you should check out job boards such as the 28 ones listed

here.

Prob­lem 4. You have no know­ledge about cli­ents or time management

Nearly all graphic design gradu­ates lack cli­ent and time man­age­ment skills! This is where exper­i­ence is the key and there is no way to get bet­ter exper­i­ence than to gain work exper­i­ence at your local design/print store — just drop in and ask. You will be sur­prised at how happy they are to hear from you — just men­tion you’re a graphic design stu­dent and you’re wish­ing to learn some new things.

By work­ing there you will learn all about deal­ing with cli­ents, time man­age­ment and the design industry and the big pic­ture. And more than likely, you will be work­ing on char­ity based pro­jects so you get to help the com­munity too!

This was an actual reply I received from a reader of my blog — it does work!

Hi Jacob. You’re a legend. I fol­lowed your advice about just ask­ing a local stu­dio and was shocked when they said I could go in one day a week! I always thought they’d be miser­able or have no time for silly young stu­dents, but true, THEY had to start some­where as well! It maybe be pro-bono work but its vital exper­i­ence that will set me apart from other stu­dents when apply­ing for a full time job.

Get­ting The Work

Here comes the hard­est part. After you feel con­fid­ent enough to go out freel­an­cing or work­ing at a design stu­dio dur­ing Graphic Design School, you should start look­ing for more jobs and clients.

Here are ten great web­sites to find graphic design jobs… the rest is up to you!

Coro­flot

Behance Job Board

Authen­tic Jobs

AIGA Design Jobs

Krop

Fresh Web Jobs

Design:Related

Smash­ing Magazine

Simply Hired

Doing con­tests lets you build up your port­fo­lio how­ever your chances of win­ning the con­test are usu­ally 1/100 which means you will more than likely, not get paid for your work. It is how­ever a great way to build your port­fo­lio, and per­haps get your work pub­lished. Here are some sites that can help.

99 Designs

Crowd Spring

Logo­sauce

Good Luck!

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